A very good jacket which I've used continuously since halfway through the winter this year. I bought it when my other textile "waterproof" jacket let me get soaked to the skin one too many times. This one is brilliant as far as weatherproofing goes. The jacket has Goretex incorporated which, in my opinion, is one of the best, if not the best, breathable weatherproof materials around. It has a double zip which also prevents the wind forcing the rain past the links, which is the way my previous jacket best liked to soak me, even though it had an inner flap designed to keep the rain out. This jacket also has a highish neck with a velcro fastening tab and I've had no problems with the wind filling up the back of the jacket through this, like a few jackets I've owned have done.

The jacket is very comfortable to wear and comes with a good back protector as standard along with shoulder and elbow armour too. The elbow armour being adjustable for various arm lengths. The jacket reaches down to the waist area, as a normal leather jacket would, and has a full zip on the inside for zipping to compatible trousers. It is also the Lady version so is cut with a feminine figure in mind, which is why I included a picture of it being worn along with one of just the jacket. There are also poppers on the arms to adjust for the width of your arms.

The jacket has three pockets on the outside (although the HG website says five), the two lower main pockets being waterproof, zipped closed and then folded over with velcro fastenings. These two are operated easily with gloves on. The third outside pocket is a large upper one on the left which is not waterproof but also easy to access with gloves on. Inside there is a non-waterproof pocket which is on the right and quite large and a small waterproof one on the left, just behind the outer one. I keep my phone in here and its been dry in the most atrocious weather.

There are zipped vents that open under the arms and then down the side of the jacket on both sides for summer use but not had the opportunity to try those yet.

All in all a very nice jacket that I can forsee I'll be keeping for a long time. Hein Gericke also do a two-year warranty on any parts that might break or if the waterproofing goes. This is a good thing as I have had several jacket zips break on me in the past and there is nothing more annoying on an otherwise fully-functioning jacket. It also covers things like the SAFE stitch seams that HG use coming apart.

Its also black, whereas my previous jacket was white and pink. Said previous jacket was fine until the winter when the roads turned nasty. I think washing it as much as I had to to get it looking, at best, slightly grubby, was what finished off any of the minimal waterproofing that was there to begin with. So far using a warm cloth to get any visible dirt off has been perfectly adequate.

In the ratings I gave it a 9 for peformance as it does everything you'd want it to do really, an 8 for protection simply because it is not a leather jacket but as far as weather protection and armour goes its faultless. I had to give a 9 for reliability because even if it does break under normal use you can get a replacement or a repair, a 10 for value for money because even though its quite expensive (more than twice as much as my previous jacket) it would seem that it is much higher quality and will (hopefully) last a lot longer. Looks good for a textile jacket and is cut nicely for a feminine bod but not as nice a leather jacket would look so an 8 there.